How Does StumbleUpon Work?

Now that you know a little bit about what StumbleUpon is, how about learning about what it actually does, and how it does this?

Basically, StumbleUpon is known as a "social bookmarking" website. This means that it's a virtual community where users get to choose what they want to see in it, offer their opinions on what they see, and share what they see with people both inside and outside the community. StumbleUpon analyzes these actions to get a sense of what each user likes or doesn't like, and shows them more of the former and less of the latter.

The following is a breakdown of what that means in terms of what you can do with StumbleUpon.

Tell StumbleUpon what you're interested in

StumbleUpon categorizes all of the web pages and content in its library into different "interests". Are you a cat person or a dog person? Do you like drama or comedy? Is golf your sport, or perhaps tennis? Are you into big band music, or classic rock? With over 500 unique interests (as of the writing of this article), there's bound to be something new on the Internet that StumbleUpon can show you that you're going to like. This will get you started with discovering what the Internet has to offer.

Let StumbleUpon know how you feel about where it takes you

If you find something on the Internet by using StumbleUpon, and you love it or decide that it isn't for you, then go right ahead and show it! You can "like" a website, or even add it to a custom "list" of similar websites so that you can find it and get back to it whenever you want. Conversely, if you're turned off by a website for whatever reason, you can "dislike" it, and perhaps also tell StumbleUpon why (e.g. the web page doesn't load or work correctly, or you've already seen it, or you think someone has miscategorized this website). Based on what web pages you "like" or "dislike", StumbleUpon will learn your preferences, and direct you towards some content and away from other content.

Get social with StumbleUpon

There's a lot more to StumbleUpon than just seeing new things on the Internet and telling StumbleUpon whether you like them or not! You can leave comments about the websites that you see, and see what other StumbleUpon users have said about that website. You can also connect with other StumbleUpon users and follow their "lists" of favourite websites; they can do the same with you! You can even share web pages that you find on StumbleUpon with other StumbleUpon users, or -- if your friends don't use StumbleUpon -- through email or your other social media networks!